Diradical Character Enhancement by Spacing: N-Heterocyclic Carbene Analogues of Müller's Hydrocarbon

Chemistry. 2018 Nov 7;24(62):16537-16542. doi: 10.1002/chem.201804524. Epub 2018 Oct 18.

Abstract

Two-fold C-C cross-coupling of N-heterocyclic carbenes [NHCs; SIPr=C(NArCH2 )2 , 1; IPr=C(NArCH)2 , 2; Me-IPr=C(NArCMe)2 , 3; Ar=2,6-iPr2 C6 H3 ] with 4,4''-diiodo-p-terphenyl under Ni catalysis furnished [(SIPr)(C6 H4 )3 (SIPr)](I)2 (4), [(IPr)(C6 H4 )3 (IPr)](I)2 (5), and [(Me-IPr)(C6 H4 )3 (Me-IPr)](I)2 (6). Two-electron reduction of 4-6 with KC8 readily afforded NHC analogues of Müller's hydrocarbon (MH), [(SIPr)(C6 H4 )3 (SIPr)] (7), [(IPr)(C6 H4 )3 (IPr)] (8), and [(Me-IPr)(C6 H4 )3 (Me-IPr)] (9), respectively, as highly colored crystalline solids. Quantum chemical calculations suggested that the singlet ground state for 7-9 possesses a vertical singlet-triplet energy gap ΔES-T of -7.24 to -7.60 kcal mol-1 , which is significantly lower compared to that of the NHC analogues of Thiele's (TH) and Chichibabin's (CH) (18-38 kcal mol-1 ) hydrocarbons. Importantly, the calculated diradical character (y) of 7-9 (y≈0.6) is considerably higher compared to that of the related TH and CH (y=0.1-0.4), suggesting the open-shell singlet character of 7-9.

Keywords: Chichibabin's hydrocarbon; Müller's hydrocarbon; carbenes; open-shell; radicals.